


Of Blood and T-Shirts

by MissILikeTooManyFandoms



Category: Carmilla (Web Series)
Genre: F/F, blood drive au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-24
Updated: 2015-05-24
Packaged: 2018-03-31 23:25:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,800
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3997138
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissILikeTooManyFandoms/pseuds/MissILikeTooManyFandoms
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Laura's a little nervous about donating blood for the first time. Luckily, Carmilla's there to ease her worry.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Of Blood and T-Shirts

**Author's Note:**

> Based on a Tumblr prompt. I'm gurukorrasami for those not in the know. Feel free to send me prompts. I usually hate AUs but this was so cute I just had to. And I love reading fics like this so I thought, why the hell not.
> 
> "Carmilla is a volunteer at the blood drive and Laura is giving blood for the first time but she's a bit worried. Carmilla is almost too smitten to help talk her through it though."

Laura should have been worried that there was no sanctioned donation organization running the drive. She should have been worried that Silas had its own blood bank. She should have been worried that none of the workers looked older than herself and in some cases, appeared even younger. Instead, Laura was worried about fainting or any number of embarrassing disasters that plague first time donors.

“Hold still.”

“Sorry!” She flushed, stilling her shaking hand so her iron levels could be checked. The girl checking her levels barely looked old enough to be in university but terrified Laura nonetheless.

“Alright. Your levels are just high enough to allow for donation. Come around here and click through these questions. Flip this sign when you’re done.” Laura relaxed a bit when the girl vanished around the dark blue barrier. The computer savvy vlogger breezed through the questionnaire, flipping the sign after just a few minutes. Thankfully, a different girl brought her out of the cubicle, walking her to one of the donation beds. Unfortunately, her relief at avoiding the terrifying iron checker was replaced by quickly rising panic.

“Hey there, cutie.” Handed off to yet another worker, Laura barely processed that she was being spoken too, overwhelmed not only by the sharp edges of this new worker’s jaw but by the blood bag and other supplies surrounding her as she clambered on to the bed. “First time?”

“Wh-what?”

“Donating blood? This your first time?” The gorgeous brunette looked thoroughly amused.

“Uh. Yeah. I’m not afraid of blood or needles or anything I’m just nervous because it’s important y’know? And I’m excited. Like really excited because donating blood is so cool and I want to help people and free t-shirts are always cool and my mom always used to wear her shirts and I want to have more than she had and wow I don’t even know your name and I’m rambling.” Laura flushed scarlet, clenching her eyes shut in embarrassment.

“It’s Carmilla, cupcake.”

“What?”

“My name. It’s Carmilla. And the rambling is cute. Unfortunately, the t-shirts are rather atrocious. Have some dumb vampire joke on them. Like we aren’t obvious enough.” Carmilla rolled her eyes for effect, throwing a small smile Laura’s way while she prepped for her donation, putting the labels from Laura’s profile on all of the vials and prepping the tubing. She finished quickly, returning her attention to the trembling girl on her table. “It really isn’t that bad, sweetheart.”

“Do you donate a lot?” Laura looked so earnest that Carmilla actually considered lying in an effort to make her feel better.

“I’ve never donated. I’m more of a…receiver.”

“Oh. Surgery?”

“You’re a freshmen, aren’t you, cupcake?”

“What’s that matter?” Carmilla chuckled as Laura huffed.

“Sweetheart, I’m a vampire. All of the workers are.”

“What?!”

“Are you allergic to iodine?”

“You’re a vampire!”

“Yes, I am. Now are you allergic to iodine?”

“Vampire!”

“Iodine?”

“No!”

“What?”

“I’m not allergic to iodine.”

“Oh, good.” Laura did her best not to shiver when Carmilla took her arm, swabbing it with iodine.

“Don’t you…uh…need to find a vein?”

“Oh, right, yeah.” Carmilla checked the elbow she had already covered in iodine, sighing when she failed to find a good point of withdrawal and shuffling over to the other side of the table, refusing to look Laura in the eye while she checked her other arm.

“First blood drive?” Laura could barely believe she was snarking off to the vampire taking her blood but it was helping her nerves. Carmilla was shocked as well, but did her best to school her features.

“Don’t usually need to find a vein, creampuff.” She flashed her fangs as she reapplied the iodine.

“Why don’t you guys just bite us? Not that I want to be bitten!” Carmilla laughed at the way Laura’s eyes darted around.

“We’re vampires, not uncivilized. Most of us haven’t drank from a human in years.”

“So that’s what the blood bank is for? Vampire blood slushies?” Laura eyed the vampire warily as she began to tape the appropriate tubing to her arm, prepping the needle.

“Essentially, yes. Some of it is kept for emergency procedures on campus though.”

“What emergency procedures? Shouldn’t they just be sent to the hospital?”

“I honestly don’t know, cutie. Alright, are you ready? I’m going to put the needle in.”

“Uh…can you distract me? I know I said I’m not afraid of needles but they’re still not fun and-“

“What’s your name?”

“What?”

“Are you going to do that every time I ask you a question?”

“Laura. Laura Hollis.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Laura. What’s your major?”

“Journalism.”

“Ah, Lois Lane.”

“Aren’t you going to put the needle in?”

“Already did.” Carmilla smirked as she plopped a stress ball into her hand, Laura following the motion to see that she did indeed already have a needle in her hand, her blood already travelling through the tubing.

“Oh, wow. Um. Thanks. For distracting me I mean. You did a really good job. What’s the ball for?” Laura gave the bright green ball of foam a little squeeze, unable to resist.

“Right. Yeah. Squeeze it every three to five seconds. Helps pump the blood or something.” Carmilla had the grace to look sheepish at yet another forgotten piece of donation etiquette, running a hand backwards through her hair.

“How long does this usually take?”

“In a hurry?”

“Are all vampires this insufferable?”

“Only the best ones.” Carmilla threw a wink in for good measure, earning herself a laugh, which immediately made her endeavor to hear the sound again. “Usually takes around five to ten minutes depending on how well your blood flows.”

“You’d be an expert in that part wouldn’t you?”

“For someone who doesn’t want to be bitten, you’re awfully interested.”

“Am I doing alright? With my donation, I mean?”

“Your heart does all the work, sundance. Relax. And it’s going pretty well, everything’s fine. You’ll be done here in a bit too. Your heart is going a bit fast. I’m surprised you made it this far.”

“Hey, what’s that supposed to mean?” Carmilla barked out a laugh as Laura’s face scrunched up, her hand still squeezing the fluorescent stress ball as directed.

“You’re not supposed to donate if your pulse is a certain rate. Can cause stress and yada yada. You’re fine though, don’t freak out.” The vampire glanced down, checking the scale the bag of blood rested on.

“Are you a student here?”

“I see that you ask the hard hitting questions, Lois Lane.” She smirked as Laura glared up at her. “Yes. Second year philosophy major, as I’m sure was your follow up question.”

“How old are you?”

“Didn’t anyone ever tell you it’s rude to ask a lady her age?”

“Oh. Um. Sorry. That was rude, wasn’t it?”

“Eighteen. Three hundred forty four if we want to be technical.”

“Wow.”

“Look at that, you’re done, cupcake.” The vampire crouched down, disconnecting Laura from the bag below her before quickly letting the rest of the blood in the tubes drain into a set of vials. When she straightened, Carmilla plucked the acid green ball from Laura’s hand and removed the needle, placing a piece of gauze on the puncture. “Keep pressure on this and hold your arm above your head.” While she bustled around finalizing Laura’s donation, the journalism student took the time to appreciate Carmilla’s form, particularly how the vampire looked in her leather pants, nearly forgetting the strain in her arm. When she finally returned, Carmilla placed more gauze over the puncture and wrapped it in bright red tape. Laura tried to hop off the table but was quickly stopped by hands at her waist, causing her and the vampire to share a rather heated gaze that quickly turned awkward. “Uh, just, be careful. You might be a little light headed. Go over to that table and eat some snacks and drink some juice. You should stay over there for at least fifteen minutes before leaving. If you…uh…need anything or don’t feel well, let me know.”

“Thanks, Carmilla.” Laura smiled and attempted to move again, but there were still hands at her waist. The vampire quickly removed them, appearing sheepish yet again before giving a quick, final nod and moving to finish up Laura’s donation.

Laura made it over to the snack table with little incident, only feeling a little wobbly. She sighed a bit at the choice of drink, but forced down some cranberry juice. She gave a quiet squeal of delight upon discovering cookies in the box of snacks, however, quickly inhaling two bags. When she checked her phone, she groaned, finding that only five minutes had passed. She considered just leaving but thought better of it, instead firing off some tweets about her successful first blood drive and the mysterious, beautiful worker who had helped her. Her tweets, much to her dismay, only took two minutes, leaving her to watch the other works and students donating. Her gaze, however, kept drifting to Carmilla, who appeared to be arguing with the worker who had terrified Laura earlier.

Though an abysmal lip reader, the ever curious journalism student attempted to follow their conversation, but failed to glean any real meaning from it. When Carmilla turned to storm off, the vampire caught Laura’s gaze, forcing her to turn back around, her face at least three different shades of red. Luckily, it had finally been fifteen minutes. Laura quickly stood and gathered her things, nearly forcing her chair to tip over in her haste, she was stopped by a light tap to her shoulder, however, before she could make it out the door.

“Hey, cutie, don’t forget your slip. You can start your own t-shirt collection now.” Carmilla stood behind her, a green piece of paper in hand.

“Oh. Thanks!” Laura took the slip, her fingers brushing the vampire’s, heat crawling up her arm where they touched. Carmilla, unbeknownst to Laura, experienced a similar sensation.

“I’ll see you around, creampuff.” The vampire brushed past her with a smirk and wink. When Laura finally settled her breathing and went outside to get her shirt, Carmilla was nowhere to be seen. She sighed and moved into line, glancing down briefly at her slip. It was a haphazardly cut slip of paper with a crookedly printed generic thanks for donating slogan across it. Laura was second in line when she absently turned the slip over, finding a hastily scrawled phone number and Carmilla’s name signed with a few x’s. The guy ahead of her got his shirt and left, leaving Laura standing in front.  The vampire working the table looked bored out of his mind, though he made an impatient gesture at Laura.

 

 **Unknown** : _You’re right, the shirts really are atrocious._

 


End file.
